The NXR Podcast - SERMON - True Unity Always Includes Division

00:00:00 Next week, Lord willing, we will begin our series through the book of Ezra.

00:00:04 And so, more often than not, the steady diet of preaching here at Covenant Bible Church is not only expositional, but expository.

00:00:12 All that means is that expositional means that there's always going to be an exposition of a primary text of Scripture.

00:00:19 That the man of God, if he is faithful, he does not come before the people of God and say,

00:00:24 I have a dream, or I have a strategy, or I have an idea.

00:00:28 But rather he says, I have a text.

00:00:31 I have a text, something from God's Word.

00:00:33 Good preaching, I believe, is comprised of three primary components.

00:00:37 That would be revelation, interpretation, and application.

00:00:42 Revelation comes from God.

00:00:44 The only revelation that is valid, that is legitimate, that is infallible, inerrant, 0.81

00:00:50 is the Scripture, the Word of God.

00:00:52 So the revelation and good preaching should be a primary text of Scripture.

00:00:56 then interpretation is the first availability for human error to enter the equation but by God's

00:01:03 grace we seek to be those who teach God's word knowing that they will be held to greater account

00:01:09 we seek to be good students of God's word rightly dividing the word of truth so that the revelation

00:01:15 which is infallible the Bible is improperly and rightly interpreted exegeted and then lastly

00:01:21 application saying this is God's word this is what God means by his word and then lastly this

00:01:28 is how we should live in light of what God has said in his word and so good preaching I believe

00:01:33 is revelation interpretation application and you can do that with isolated passages of scripture

00:01:40 and if you've been with us over the the previous months that's what we've been doing is we've been

00:01:44 bouncing around each week always having a primary text of scripture I haven't come and said I have

00:01:50 an idea. I have a strategy. I say, I have a text. There's something in God's Word. But this will be

00:01:56 the last week that we do bouncing around isolated texts of Scripture. That's expositional if you're

00:02:02 expositing a primary text of Scripture. But expository, not only expositional, but expository

00:02:08 preaching is the idea that we're going to go text by text by text in sequence. And so more often

00:02:14 than not always, we are committed to expositional preaching having a text. But more often than not,

00:02:21 not always, but most of the time, we're committed not only to expositional preaching, I have a text,

00:02:27 but expository preaching, I'm going to go from start to finish through whole books of the Bible

00:02:33 so that we're not just getting an isolated text that may or may not be taken out of context,

00:02:39 but we're getting a whole book of the Bible. And so that's what we've done with the book of Hebrews.

00:02:43 We did that with the book of Joshua, and we're going to be doing that, Lord willing, starting next Lord's Day with the book of Ezra.

00:02:51 For today, our last week of expositional but not expository preaching, bouncing around, our primary text for today is Ephesians chapter 4, verses 7 through 16.

00:03:01 I got into some of this principle in Scripture of unity and different kinds of unity last

00:03:08 week, and I decided that it would be helpful, I believe, for our church to address this

00:03:13 more thoroughly.

00:03:14 So this is a concept, biblical concept, that I addressed in part last week, but I'm going

00:03:19 to address, Lord willing, in full today.

00:03:21 So let's go ahead and stand for the reading of God's Word.

00:03:24 Again, our text for today is Ephesians chapter 4, verse 7 through 16.

00:03:28 I'll read the text in its entirety.

00:03:30 when i finish reading the text i'm going to say this is the word of the lord at which point i

00:03:34 would appreciate very much if you would respond by saying thanks be to god one final time our

00:03:39 text is ephesians chapter 4 verse 7 through 16 the bible says this but grace was given to each

00:03:46 one of us according to the measure of christ's gift therefore it says when he ascended on high

00:03:52 he led a host of captives and he gave gifts to men in saying he ascended what does it mean

00:03:58 but that he also descended into the lower regions the earth he who descended is the one who also

00:04:06 ascended far above all the heavens that he might fill all things and he gave the apostles the

00:04:13 prophets the evangelists the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry for

00:04:19 building up the body of christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of

00:04:25 the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that

00:04:32 we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of

00:04:39 doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth

00:04:46 in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole

00:04:53 body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is

00:05:00 working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. This is the word of the

00:05:07 Lord. All right, please be seated. Let's go ahead and dive right in. By way of introduction, I've

00:05:16 written the following. There are several passages of scripture that address the importance of unity

00:05:20 within the church through common care through love and charity toward one another however

00:05:26 Ephesians chapter 4 verses 7 through 16 is unique in the sense that it addresses the equal importance

00:05:34 the equally important need of unity in the church not only in the way we love one another

00:05:39 care love and charity but unity within the church through conviction doctrine and truth

00:05:47 that we don't merely want to have unity with one another due to charity amidst disagreement,

00:05:54 but preferably we would like to have unity as the church by having agreement. We want to have

00:06:02 charity towards one another, and there are times in this life, because of sin, sin mars everything,

00:06:08 including our understanding of biblical doctrine. And so because of a presence of sin, we don't,

00:06:13 even within the church, as Christians, we don't all agree on what precisely truth is. Now, if we

00:06:20 are, in fact, Christians, we're going to agree on doctrinal truth as it pertains to primary

00:06:26 theological doctrine. This is why theological triage, for lack of a better phrase or label,

00:06:31 is vitally important. It's important that we know truth, but it's also important that we rightly or

00:06:38 properly value different truth, right? So the truth of the Trinity trumps the truth of head

00:06:47 coverings. I think head coverings are important. I don't talk about it all the time, but I've talked

00:06:52 about it a couple times and usually get in trouble because people say, well, that's not

00:06:57 progressive. That seems misogynistic. You think women should cover their heads? That's not in

00:07:02 line with feminism? And I respond by saying, yes, I am patriarchal. And according to you,

00:07:09 a misogynist. In biblical terms, I'm not a misogynist. But according to you, if some

00:07:13 leftist says that I'm a misogynist, then I know I'm doing well. And if the average evangelical

00:07:19 Christian, this one hurts, calls me a feminist or a misogynist, I also know that I'm doing well.

00:07:26 Because most evangelicals are feminists today. So all that being said, the point is,

00:07:31 head coverings versus the trinity which one's more important the trinity right so uh that's

00:07:38 not relativism uh but that is theological triage right so it's just like like anatomy you know or

00:07:46 or when it comes to health um you know you can have uh some kind of health problem i'm not i'm

00:07:53 not going to give examples because i i will not know what i'm talking about and uh and it'll become

00:07:57 the parent very quickly. But let's just say, you know, you can have something that's wrong with

00:08:01 your body. And it's objectively wrong. We're not relativists. It's not like, well, you know,

00:08:06 you see that as a detriment. But some people over here see it as an improvement. And it's progressive

00:08:10 and it's good. No, there are certain things that are just objectively, universally across the board.

00:08:15 This is bad. But that doesn't mean that all ailments are equally bad, right? If you have

00:08:20 something bad that happened with your big toe, you know, that that is not on the same plane

00:08:26 has something bad going on with your heart, right?

00:08:30 So both, it's not that one, you know,

00:08:32 this is true and that's true

00:08:33 and these two things contradict each other

00:08:36 while being simultaneously true.

00:08:38 That's relativism,

00:08:39 which is a doctrine from the pit of hell.

00:08:41 Relativism is not a thing.

00:08:43 You cannot have two contradicting truths

00:08:46 that are both simultaneously true.

00:08:49 That's not possible.

00:08:50 You can have two contradicting statements

00:08:52 that are both wrong.

00:08:54 They can both be wrong,

00:08:55 but they both can't be right.

00:08:57 Now you can have two things and say both are true

00:09:00 but one truth is more important than the other.

00:09:03 They're both true and even equally true.

00:09:06 Not partially true or mostly true.

00:09:08 They are both 100% true.

00:09:11 And yet one truth still remains more valuable than the other.

00:09:15 So within the church, if we are in fact Christians,

00:09:19 there can be no debate on primary.

00:09:21 Going back to this idea of theological triage,

00:09:23 No debate, no disagreement on primary doctrine,

00:09:27 on primary theological truth, right?

00:09:29 So if somebody says, hey, you believe in the Trinity

00:09:31 and I don't, but we're both brothers in Christ,

00:09:34 the proper response is, no, you're going to hell. 0.99

00:09:38 You're going to hell. 0.98

00:09:39 You are not a brother in Christ,

00:09:41 but I pray that by God's grace that you might become one.

00:09:43 I'm not celebrating the fact

00:09:45 that you're not a brother in Christ.

00:09:46 I want you to be born again. 0.97

00:09:48 But there is no such thing as Christianity

00:09:50 that denies the eternal one essence,

00:09:55 divine essence, one God.

00:09:57 Behold, O Israel, your God is one.

00:09:59 One God eternally existing in three persons.

00:10:03 This is Christian doctrine

00:10:06 and it is primary Christian doctrine.

00:10:08 In addition to that, doctrines of soteriology.

00:10:12 Soteriology is just a theological term for salvation.

00:10:16 Not every doctrine pertaining to salvation is primary,

00:10:19 But the primary ones are primary. I'll give you an example. The five solas. The five solas, sola just being a Latin word for alone, like soul. This is the sole reason, the only reason, exclusive, alone.

00:10:33 The five solas are, and this is not my idea, I didn't come up with this yesterday, this has been argued for hundreds of years, the five solas are non-negotiable.

00:10:44 The five solas all pertain to salvation in some form of another.

00:10:49 Soteriology, salvation, how God saves, what salvation even is, the need for salvation, and the method of God that he's determined in his sovereignty for how he saves sinners unto himself.

00:11:02 So the five solas all deal with salvation, and they're all primary doctrine, which means to deny the solas is ultimately to be outside of the umbrella of Orthodox Christianity. 0.50

00:11:14 It is to be other than Christian. It is, therefore, in other words, to be non-Christian. 0.65

00:11:20 However, the doctrines of grace,

00:11:23 which just so happened to also be the number five,

00:11:26 can be, at some level, disagreed with,

00:11:30 and still that person could be a brother or sister in Christ.

00:11:33 Now, again, does that mean that the doctrines of grace,

00:11:37 when it comes to the doctrines of grace,

00:11:39 that all of a sudden we become relativists,

00:11:41 and that these doctrines are not empirically true?

00:11:45 No. The doctrines of grace are right.

00:11:47 And when I say the doctrines of grace,

00:11:49 I'm talking about, I'm talking about Calvinism. Sometimes, you know, you say doctrines of grace

00:11:53 or reformed, right? And a lot of these, and those are good words. But a lot of times it's,

00:11:59 the motive is to avoid the word Calvinism. But I don't avoid that word because I think it's a good

00:12:07 word. And people, well, Calvinism, that means you follow John Calvin. You follow a man. I follow

00:12:12 Christ. That's stupid. Just cut that out. You know, come up with a better argument. When I say 1.00

00:12:17 calvinism people say well you know creeds and confessions and doctrines you know no creed but

00:12:23 christ just give me the bible so well the bible's a really big book and and i don't always have the

00:12:29 time to explain you know 2500 pages to somebody passing by who asked me you know what what i

00:12:36 believe all right so it's helpful uh to be and and someone who says no creed but christ the question

00:12:41 that you should immediately ask is this who's christ right and then they say well what do you

00:12:46 mean? Well, is he God or is he man or is he fully God and fully man? That one. Was he born of a

00:12:54 virgin? Was he conceived? And within about a few minutes, it's like, great, you just confessed

00:13:00 the Nicene Creed. Wouldn't that have been easier if you just started with that? You think you're

00:13:06 so smart. That's the problem with our generation. We're smarter than everybody, which is not true.

00:13:10 IQs have actually been going down. So in real terms, we're done. We're real done. And if you

00:13:15 want to hedge protection against your own dumbness, and I have plenty of it myself, one way to protect 0.95

00:13:22 yourself against that is to read intelligent men. And for the record, most of them exist before

00:13:29 World War I and World War II. So if you want to be safe and you want to read truth, don't read

00:13:35 anybody who is currently alive or somebody who lived recently. And you don't have to go back

00:13:40 far. You don't have to read Athanasius. You don't have to necessarily read Augustine, although those

00:13:43 are good reads. But really, you only have to go back about 100 years, about 80 years even.

00:13:50 As long as you can get back before the weak gods entered into Western civilization, inclusivism,

00:13:56 diversity, openness. Diversity is our strength, but diversity not about ethnicity, but about

00:14:02 ideas. You believe something. Relativism is a good thing rather than objective truth. Everything

00:14:07 becomes interpersonal, atomistic, individualistic, society, the subjective reigning supreme over the

00:14:14 objective. All those ideas are bad. Every single one of them. These are bad ideas that were used

00:14:19 to destroy Western civilization because we were too strong. And we were strong because of Christendom,

00:14:24 not because of bloodlines, not because of ethnicity, not because of DNA. We were strong

00:14:29 because the Christian worldview turns out is true. And when a society, when a culture believes

00:14:36 the truth of God and begins to apply those truths to every single realm of life, including

00:14:41 mathematics and engineering and medicine and politics and the whole nine yards, guess what

00:14:47 happens with that civilization? It's blessed. It's blessed. So Christendom built the West.

00:14:53 Classical liberalism and principled pluralism appeared to be working, but only because they 0.82

00:14:59 were working off the fumes, running off the fumes of a prior Christian worldview. And now those 0.73

00:15:05 fumes have run dry. In comes post-modernism, in comes secularism, the subjective reigning supreme

00:15:12 over the objective, and all of a sudden, you know, people don't know what a boy is anymore.

00:15:18 And in a real objective sense, IQs have gotten lower, right? That's what happens. You abandon

00:15:25 Christ. One thing that you'll find through the Proverbs is a direct correlation between foolishness

00:15:32 and wickedness. Meaning you abandon Christ, you've done that which is wicked, but you've also done

00:15:38 that which is dumb. That sin actually makes someone a fool. The fool says in his heart, 1.00

00:15:45 there is no God. It's not just the wicked denies the truth of God or the mere existence of God. 1.00

00:15:51 It's not just sinister. It's not just morally wrong. It's also foolish and dumb and stupid.

00:15:59 And the Bible uses that word. Proverbs says the stupid, the ignorant, the foolish. And those two 1.00

00:16:06 things are always tied together. Wisdom and morality, right? Wisdom and righteousness.

00:16:13 They're like two peas in a pod. They go hand in glove. Likewise, foolishness and wickedness

00:16:20 will always, they're twins. They're conjoined twins. They're never separated. They always will 0.96

00:16:25 follow one another. And as Western civilization has rejected truth, that is an immoral decision,

00:16:32 a wicked decision, but it has given way to the immediate fruit and progressively gradually

00:16:38 growing fruit of foolishness. You reject Christ, that's bad. It's morally bad. And your IQ just

00:16:46 got lower. You just became dumber. Congratulations. So all that being said, my point is that with 1.00

00:16:52 western civilization making this point real quick and then going back with western civilization

00:16:56 the strength the strength of europe and the strength of these united states of america

00:17:02 was its devotion to christ and its devotion to the truth of christ found in the word of god

00:17:09 and not only in theory that's one more part that i'll add it wasn't just this is true and we agree

00:17:15 and give our assent to this truth on a theoretical plane in a esoteric sense no no no the puritans

00:17:24 the covenanters they believed if this is true then we should obey we should live it out we should

00:17:32 apply this truth in tangible ways not just theoretical but but not only in the theoretical

00:17:37 but in the practical and that was the the success of the west from constantine to king alfred um all

00:17:44 the way, you know, right now, like me and every other, you know, Christian guy between the age of

00:17:48 15, you know, and, and 85, you know, I'm reading Defenders of the West. I saw something on Twitter

00:17:56 the other day that was funny. It showed like a little kid who was like wearing the costume of

00:18:00 a crusader and said, this is how every little kid's going to be dressed up next Halloween,

00:18:04 because their dad is reading about the crusades and, you know, and getting red-pilled on the

00:18:09 Christians and, you know, and that, hey, maybe the crusades weren't quite as bad as revisionist

00:18:13 history has made it sound, you know, and Charlemagne, maybe he was actually a great guy, you

00:18:18 know, and Richard the Lionheart and Duke Gregory and all these guys. And so anyways, that's the

00:18:23 cool thing right now. If you want to be in the end, if you have a groaning suspicion that you

00:18:29 are missing out, if you're feeling a sense of FOMO, I'll tell you right now, the end thing

00:18:35 is to read about the Crusades and to say they were not perfect, but a lot better than people

00:18:41 saying, right? That's the cool thing to do. And then you don't, you don't have to feel like you're

00:18:43 missing out. But all that being said, my point is from Constantine, I mean, 1,500 years of Christendom.

00:18:49 That's what built the West. That's what built the West. It wasn't, it wasn't merely, there are,

00:18:54 in God's providence, there are certain things. America is pretty great geographically, right?

00:19:01 There is something to be said for 17,000 navigable miles of rivers in the United States. And I

00:19:08 believe it's like it's either 17,000 or 15,000, but then there's only about a comparable amount

00:19:16 of navigable rivers in the rest of the world all combined. So we have an equal amount in our

00:19:22 country of rivers that are actually able to navigate with large ships for transporting

00:19:28 goods and resources in our country equal to the rest of the world combined. Is that a factor to

00:19:34 america's success uh-huh probably i think so um certain resources natural resources the fact just

00:19:40 just the topography and the geography in terms of of defense right that on on both the east and the

00:19:46 west were guarded by oceans right that's just that's a lot easier to defend than being a small

00:19:52 country in the middle of the middle east right and to the north there's no threat there because

00:19:57 they're canadians you know and and to the south there is a massive threat we call it an invasion

00:20:03 it is an invasion but it is actually a threat that's easy to neutralize if we have politicians

00:20:10 that cared but we don't but we'll pray and we'll see what happens that's a long story so anyways

00:20:14 all that being said yeah that lent towards america's success there are certain practical

00:20:19 things even that's still within the sovereignty and providence of god but it's not only that

00:20:23 it's not only that the the key factor is the christian worldview uh that america was not just

00:20:30 blessed by god's providence but uniquely blessed in its obedience to god's word to god's word so

00:20:37 then how do you stop something like that because you're you become at some point so blessed and so

00:20:44 advanced and so well defended and strong and it's just you're punching way above your weight you you

00:20:52 you have resources that are exponentially by multiple times 10 10 times 10 times 10 times

00:20:58 over every other country in the world,

00:21:00 you become a superpower.

00:21:02 How do you defeat a superpower?

00:21:05 Ideas.

00:21:07 How do you defeat a superpower

00:21:09 that has the strongest military in the world?

00:21:11 Which arguably we don't anymore,

00:21:13 but did, and not that long ago.

00:21:16 You can't defeat them with blood, sweat, and tears.

00:21:19 You can't do it tangibly, physically.

00:21:21 But you can do it by pumping their kids with TikTok.

00:21:28 right like in china you watch tiktok videos i'm sure you're aware of this teenagers watch it and

00:21:34 it's like how to solve this math problem and that's the only tiktok available to teenagers in

00:21:39 china uh but in america it's like how to dance like a cat you know and because and that's

00:21:48 intentional that's not an accident it's and again c.a iq's lower iq's lower uh but the correlation

00:21:56 ultimately being, it's not just a practical phenomenon. It is a spiritual phenomenon. Rejection

00:22:02 of Christ, rebellion against Christ, foolishness and wickedness always coming as a pair. So how do

00:22:08 you destroy the West? Well, you do it ultimately through ideology. I would recommend there's two

00:22:13 great essays. They're collected and bound together in a little booklet. It's maybe 65 pages long.

00:22:20 it's called the fate of empires and basically just tracks you know major empires the babylonian

00:22:27 empire ottoman empire persians and medes you know and then rome would be one of the big ones and

00:22:32 and how did all these empires all at a certain point because america should be thought i'm not

00:22:37 saying that we should be this um but but this is what we have been america at some level should

00:22:42 be thought of an empire rather than a nation now i for the record would love to just be a a nation

00:22:48 or a republic, and not the world police. But we have been. That's just the reality. We have been

00:22:54 more than just a nation. We've been an empire. And so America, I think, tracks with other historic

00:22:59 empires. And when you look at empires on the whole that became superpowers, like Rome, the Roman

00:23:04 Greco Empire that was completely in control over the known world at the time, how does something

00:23:11 like that fall and and there are certain uh characteristics that were that were found in

00:23:18 every single major empire that led towards its ultimate demise one of them for the record uh

00:23:24 fun information one of them is altruism um but but an over emphasis on altruism meaning uh that

00:23:33 these empires uh they became so powerful that eventually the people felt a sense of guilt

00:23:38 And to relieve their consciences, to assuage their consciences, they decided to be generous and inviting and inclusive and giving, altruistic, but to a point where it became suicidal.

00:23:56 to a point where all of a sudden

00:24:00 they welcomed the empire stretch too wide,

00:24:03 too far, too inclusive,

00:24:05 and then there wasn't the central mold any longer

00:24:09 that actually held it together.

00:24:11 It turns out diversity was not Rome's strength. 0.62

00:24:15 Diversity was Rome's demise.

00:24:18 And again, diversity,

00:24:19 because when we think diversity,

00:24:20 because we've been pumped,

00:24:21 filled with critical race theory

00:24:22 and all these things,

00:24:23 we're thinking color.

00:24:25 The world is not all about color.

00:24:26 brothers and sisters. So when I talk about diversity, I'm not talking about black and

00:24:30 white ethnicity. I'm talking about diversity of convictions, truths, ideas, commitments.

00:24:38 I'm talking about diversity of tradition, diversity of religion. These are not strengths.

00:24:46 It is not a strength to say, you know what's great about our country? About 15% worships the

00:24:52 triune god but what's really cool is that another 10 worships satan and another 10 worships islam 0.76

00:24:59 but i repeat myself and another 10 worships you know talmudic judaism but i repeat myself right

00:25:07 so just satan fill in the blank satan satan say that's not a strength when we say principled

00:25:13 pluralism josiah king josiah would have heard that as polytheism and polytheism is just a placeholder

00:25:21 for idolatry.

00:25:24 Idolatry is not a strength.

00:25:27 When you hear diversity is our strength,

00:25:29 you should hear this.

00:25:30 What they're trying to convince you of

00:25:33 is idolatry is our strength.

00:25:35 Idolatry is never our strength.

00:25:38 A country where every single citizen 0.90

00:25:40 worships the triune God

00:25:42 by grace alone, through faith alone, 0.58

00:25:44 in Christ alone, has no diversity,

00:25:46 and it will be more blessed

00:25:48 than any other nation on the planet.

00:25:50 it diversity is not our strength not diversity of religion or tradition or culture again get the

00:25:58 ethnic the ethnicity thing is not the issue we've pinned so much on that but that's not the thing

00:26:05 okay so all that being said how do you destroy the west well you you end and this gets us back

00:26:10 to ephesians believe it or not the way you destroy the west is you tell them unity is all about love

00:26:17 for one another in the midst of zero unity when it comes to our beliefs. That's not right.

00:26:26 And that's the kind of unity that the West has adopted. And right on schedule, like a German 0.98

00:26:32 freight train, right? It's never late. Right on schedule, the evangelical church of the West

00:26:38 adopted the very same thing. And the evangelical church, the very people of God, began to pick up

00:26:44 that same rhetoric and boast as though it was somehow a benefit to say you know what's great

00:26:49 about our church what's great about our church is we really love each other even though we all have

00:26:54 different theological convictions how is that how is that great because again we're not relativist

00:27:02 and if you all have differing theological convictions that actually contradict one another

00:27:06 then at best, at best, only one of you is right and everyone else is wrong, which I feel like I

00:27:16 don't have to bring it home, but I will just to make it painfully clear. If one of you is right

00:27:21 and everyone else is wrong, that's what you do not call a strength. That's not strength.

00:27:28 That is wicked, which is also synonymous, comes in a pair with dumb. 1.00

00:27:35 You're dumb. 1.00

00:27:37 Your church is dumb. 1.00

00:27:38 It's not helpful. 1.00

00:27:40 It doesn't please the Lord.

00:27:42 It's not a benefit to the body of Christ. 0.99

00:27:44 It's not loving to your neighbors, even your unbelieving neighbors who don't know Christ 0.56

00:27:49 because they're now confused.

00:27:51 Someone shared the gospel with me.

00:27:52 And then sister so-and-so, they shared the gospel with me.

00:27:55 And it was two different gospels.

00:27:57 Not helpful. And just to tie up a loose end here, going back to the doctrines of grace in the five

00:28:03 solos, all right? So just in case, because people are always new, and I don't want to take for

00:28:07 granted that you know all these things. I use big words from time to time because I'm not the

00:28:11 smartest guy in the world. It makes me feel better about myself. But no, that's not why. It's because

00:28:15 I want to tell you, well, that is true, but that's not why. That is true. But I use these words

00:28:22 because they are theological words, and I want you to learn those words. But what I try to do

00:28:27 is also define them.

00:28:28 So soteriology, I said,

00:28:30 that's the doctrine of salvation.

00:28:32 But I want to use that word

00:28:33 that way in your own study,

00:28:34 in your own private practices of piety

00:28:36 and as you're reading theology,

00:28:38 you come across that and go,

00:28:39 oh, I know what that is.

00:28:40 I want us to learn.

00:28:42 And so all that being said,

00:28:43 the five doctrines of grace,

00:28:45 that is the five points of Calvinism,

00:28:47 which doesn't mean you follow John Calvin.

00:28:49 It means you follow Jesus

00:28:50 and you think that John Calvin,

00:28:53 in a synopsis sense,

00:28:54 that he summarized Jesus' doctrine of salvation

00:28:58 in a very helpful way.

00:29:01 You're not saying I follow Calvin instead of Christ.

00:29:04 You're saying I follow Christ,

00:29:05 and what I mean by following Christ

00:29:07 is I believe Christ taught these things.

00:29:10 Which ones?

00:29:11 The ones that were spelled out very clearly by John Calvin,

00:29:14 and we don't need to reinvent the wheel,

00:29:15 so we'll just go with him.

00:29:17 But it's not Calvin instead of Christ.

00:29:20 It's Christ as articulated through Calvin.

00:29:23 And here's the deal.

00:29:24 everyone does that right a confession of faith whether it's 1689 or westminster or the helvetic

00:29:30 confession or the heidelberg everybody has a confession you might say i reject all those i

00:29:35 just i just read the bible okay but you have an interpretation of the bible which means this you

00:29:39 have a confession but instead of it being a tried and true and tested confession over hundreds of

00:29:44 years that was actually formed together in ecumenical councils by by not one man but dozens

00:29:49 if not hundreds of men over time

00:29:52 with greater wisdom than you have.

00:29:53 What you're saying is I am confessional

00:29:55 and I submit to the confession of Joel.

00:29:58 Which again, it's just a lot of circles in the sermon.

00:30:02 Go back, see point A. 1.00

00:30:04 You submit to the dumb confession. 0.99

00:30:06 The confession of Joel, 0.99

00:30:08 if I ever come up with one,

00:30:09 you guys feel free, hold me accountable and say, 0.99

00:30:11 Pastor, you told us that's dumb. 0.98

00:30:14 So cut that out. 0.98

00:30:16 Everybody is confessional.

00:30:17 What I mean is everybody is reading the scripture and coming up with what it means.

00:30:24 And you're either doing that alone in isolation without the training and the equipping and

00:30:31 the ability to do it well, or you're submitting to better men than yourself and saying, I

00:30:37 think these guys did it well.

00:30:39 And none of that, that doesn't mean confessions are infallible.

00:30:42 Only this book, the word of God, is infallible without error.

00:30:46 So when I say I submit to the Second London Baptist

00:30:49 Confession of Faith, the 1689,

00:30:51 I'm not saying that it's infallible.

00:30:53 But I'm saying I believe those guys

00:30:55 did a better job than I could do.

00:30:58 That's what I'm saying.

00:30:59 So I'm saying this is infallible,

00:31:01 but what does it mean?

00:31:02 These guys attempted to explain what it means,

00:31:04 and I think their explanation of the interpretation,

00:31:08 the meaning of the scripture,

00:31:09 is better than the one that I could come up with.

00:31:12 And so in that sense, everyone is creedal.

00:31:15 Everyone has a creed.

00:31:17 Everyone has a confession.

00:31:18 It's just either a good one or a bad one.

00:31:20 Or to put it another way,

00:31:21 the way that the late great R.C. Sproul put it,

00:31:24 he said, everyone is a theologian.

00:31:27 Even the atheist is a theologian.

00:31:28 He's just a particularly bad theologian.

00:31:31 But it's not whether, but which.

00:31:33 Not whether, but which.

00:31:35 Which kind of theologian are you?

00:31:37 Which confession do you have?

00:31:38 You have one.

00:31:39 It's either the confession that exists in your own head

00:31:42 that you came up with 15 minutes ago,

00:31:44 or it's another confession, but you do have a confession, you do have a creed, you are a

00:31:48 theologian, so be a good one. And one of the ways to be a good one is to submit to better theologians

00:31:54 than yourself, to exercise humility. And one of the pinnacle illustrations or examples of

00:31:59 arrogance is pretending as though we're the first people in all of human history that have ever had

00:32:07 wisdom. That all of our forefathers were fools. And that's part of the reason why IQs have dropped 1.00

00:32:14 and why we've become so foolish is because we're arrogant. Humility and wisdom. So I said 1.00

00:32:21 righteousness and wisdom. Another thing that we could say from the book of Proverbs, humility

00:32:24 and wisdom, two peas in a pod. And arrogance and foolishness always go hand in glove. They're also

00:32:32 two peas in a pod. Where you find an arrogant man, you will find an ignorant man. And vice versa, 1.00

00:32:38 where you find an ignorant man, you will find an arrogant man. Our generation is so prideful, 1.00

00:32:44 thinking we're the first moral people to ever be born. And likewise, we've become, because of our

00:32:49 pride, so ignorant, so foolish. The most informed generation, more information than ever before, 1.00

00:32:57 more access to information, but so little wisdom. Because wisdom is not mere knowledge. Wisdom is

00:33:04 knowledge applied. Not just knowing what exists, but knowing how things work, how to live in God's

00:33:13 world, how to take this fact and even having the discernment to determine whether or not it is

00:33:19 in fact a fact. And then if it is a fact, taking that fact and saying, okay, so what? This is true,

00:33:26 but then how then shall we live as Francis Schaeffer would have said how does this apply if

00:33:31 this then that that's when you've begun to embark into the realm of wisdom when you're thinking if

00:33:38 this is true then I should do the following I should live like this so all that being back to

00:33:45 this diversity is our strength which is a lie it's not true diversity of thought is not a strength

00:33:50 diversity of conviction is not a strength that gets us back to Ephesians 4 and the importance

00:33:55 of unity. And it's not just unity of love. As you've sat in churches, those of you who have

00:34:02 grown up in the church, you've been in the Christian church, evangelical church your entire

00:34:06 life, you've probably heard at least a dozen, if not more, sermons over the years on the subject

00:34:12 of unity. But I would bet that the only sermons you've heard of on unity have only ever addressed

00:34:19 one biblical kind or type of unity, namely a unity of what I'm going to call a unity of love.

00:34:27 It's a unity that emphasizes love and common care. And that is biblical, it is right, but it is not

00:34:37 exclusively or exhaustively what unity in biblical terms is about. That is only one type of unity.

00:34:45 It is right. It is biblical, but it's incomplete. It is right. It is biblical, but it's not the

00:34:52 whole enchilada. So what's another kind of unity? I would submit to you that there are at least in

00:34:57 biblical terms, two primary types of unity, not merely one. One is a unity of love. The other

00:35:03 is unity of faith. One unity of love is a unity of common care. The other is a unity of common

00:35:10 convictions. That it's not just unity in the way that we care for one another, whether there be

00:35:16 agreement or disagreement, but it's also a unity that doesn't just stem from the heart, but a unity

00:35:22 that stems from the mind. That we actually share the same mind of Christ, as Paul writes to the

00:35:29 Corinthians. That we actually have the same convictions. Not just that we all love one another,

00:35:34 but we all love one another and ideally we all believe the same things now to be brothers in

00:35:41 christ you must have a unity not just of love but a unity of faith a unity of common conviction not

00:35:48 merely common care at the top level top shelf of theological triage so to be just to be at a base

00:35:56 level a minimum to be even fellow christians you have to have unity not just of common care but

00:36:02 again, you could actually not have that. You could not love one another, which means you're in sin,

00:36:07 but you could be in sin, not loving one another, not having a unity of common care. But if you at

00:36:12 least have a unity of common conviction at the top level, like the Trinity, then you actually

00:36:19 are brothers and sisters in Christ. That's the minimum bar. That's the prerequisite, what's

00:36:24 required to be the people of God, to be in the church, at least the visible church, that we

00:36:29 would recognize this person. God alone sees the heart. Man sees the outward appearance. But for

00:36:35 all intents and purposes, we as fallible man should be able to look at that person and say,

00:36:39 you agree with this? You agree with that? You agree with this? You agree with that? Then you

00:36:43 are a brother in Christ. That's one of the reasons why we recite the Apostles' Creed in our liturgy

00:36:49 every single Lord's Day. It's because what we're doing is we are cultivating and reminding

00:36:56 ourselves and stirring up anew and afresh each lord's day unity unity i believe we and we say

00:37:05 we we believe in god the father almighty what we're saying is we are the same we agree we are

00:37:13 unified christ has made us one and and what are we but notice how are we doing it we're not saying

00:37:19 we love each other we don't go around in our liturgy we don't go around the room and pat

00:37:23 each other on the head and say, you look so pretty and you're so sweet and I really have

00:37:26 lots of fluffy feelings for you. That's not how we do it. No, no, but we are accomplishing unity

00:37:33 and I would argue a greater and deeper unity. And how are we doing it? We're doing it with truth.

00:37:39 And the truth is meant to assume the love. It's not one against the other. But what we're doing

00:37:45 is we're saying, we believe these same truths about God. We believe these things. We are one.

00:37:53 We're on the same team.

00:37:55 We're on the same team.

00:37:56 So most of the sermons that you've probably heard about unity over the years

00:37:59 are unity of love sermons.

00:38:02 They're unity of common care sermons.

00:38:03 Not unity of faith, unity of knowledge, unity of common conviction.

00:38:08 But that's precisely what Ephesians 4, verse 7 through 16 talks about.

00:38:13 The first question that we need to answer is this.

00:38:15 Who grows the body?

00:38:16 Jesus.

00:38:17 But how does he grow the body?

00:38:19 That's the more particular question.

00:38:21 Jesus is ultimately the sovereign one, the head of the body,

00:38:24 and therefore the source of all the body's life and growth.

00:38:27 But how, what method does he utilize to grow the body?

00:38:31 Jesus has determined that he should use the body to grow itself.

00:38:36 Look at the last verse, verse 16.

00:38:38 From whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped,

00:38:44 when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

00:38:50 So who grows the body?

00:38:52 The ultimate answer, Jesus.

00:38:54 But in a secondary sense,

00:38:56 what agency does Jesus determine in his sovereignty to use?

00:39:00 The body itself.

00:39:02 The body builds the body.

00:39:04 The body, again, the body of Christ being the church,

00:39:07 the people of God, the saints, Christians. 0.63

00:39:09 So who builds Christians up?

00:39:11 Christians, fellow Christians.

00:39:14 How does the body at a local level,

00:39:16 a local church or universally, the universal church,

00:39:20 how does the body the church of christ grow well the body grows the body christ uses the saints

00:39:28 to stir one another up in love to build one another up through discipling one another the

00:39:35 body grows the body christ ultimately is the source as the head of the body right he's the

00:39:41 vine we are the branches so christ is the ultimate source and therefore sola de gloria he gets all

00:39:48 the glory alone. So Christ gets the glory for growing the body, but he uses the agency of the

00:39:55 body to grow the body. And that's not, for the record, it's not that he uses a piece of the body

00:40:01 to grow the rest of the body. That's not what Ephesians 4 teaches. Ephesians 4 doesn't teach

00:40:07 that Christ uses Joel and Connor to build up 200 other people. No, he uses all 200 to build 200.

00:40:16 So where do leaders come in?

00:40:18 Well, that's another portion of the text.

00:40:20 Let's look at verse 10.

00:40:21 No, 11.

00:40:23 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists,

00:40:26 the shepherds, and teachers to equip, to build the body.

00:40:29 No, but to equip the saints to build the body,

00:40:32 which is the work of ministry, for building up the body,

00:40:36 it literally says it, of Christ.

00:40:38 So who builds the body?

00:40:39 Ultimately, Jesus.

00:40:41 How does he do it?

00:40:42 Through human agency.

00:40:43 Which humans?

00:40:44 the whole church builds the whole church. And how does the church do it? The saints themselves,

00:40:51 you, the members of Christ's body, you build each other up and leaders in the church come in not to

00:40:57 do the work of ministry, which is building the body, but rather to equip you to do the work of

00:41:02 ministry. So leaders don't build the body. Leaders equip the body to build the body. And all of this

00:41:09 comes from christ who gives the growth so christ is the source the vine that gives nutrients and

00:41:16 life to the branches he's the head that gives the source of life to all the body but he does it

00:41:23 through agency in real time in tangible practical ways and he's growing his body by using the body

00:41:31 and the body is effective in building the body because the body is equipped by leaders given to

00:41:37 the body by christ those leaders being not five but four the leaders being apostles prophets

00:41:45 evangelists and shepherd teachers think of it like shepherd hyphen teacher that's the way that

00:41:51 it actually appears in the greek so it's not five but four a shepherd teacher what's that

00:41:55 right it's two roles but but you know two functions but in one title one office uh so so

00:42:01 what office has as its two primary roles shepherding and teaching pastor so it should i

00:42:08 believe that the proper reading of this verse verse 11 of ephesians 4 is fourfold ministry not five

00:42:13 and who is it it's apostles it's um prophets it's evangelists and it's pastors and cross-referencing

00:42:21 over to ephesians 220 it says that he gave the apostles and prophets i said this last week i'll

00:42:27 recap quickly apostles and prophets to be the foundation of the church and christ jesus himself

00:42:33 as the cornerstone the uh the most pivotal integral part of the foundation so the apostles

00:42:40 and prophets i believe this is i think good theology the way that it should be read this is

00:42:44 reformed theology it's also cessationist theology which not everybody likes cessationist just means

00:42:50 believing not all but some of the gifts of the spirit have ceased okay but but the view is this

00:42:56 that apostles and prophets are serving, not today, but they served at a time in laying the

00:43:04 foundation for the church. And they are still serving today, but they're serving through the

00:43:08 pages of scripture. We still have the apostles and prophets working together and working in the

00:43:14 modern church today, but they're working through the scripture because we have the apostles and

00:43:19 prophets inscripturated. In general, you could say like this, prophets, Old Testament, apostles,

00:43:24 knew. So apostles and prophets, they were used by Christ to do various things, but one of the chief

00:43:30 things is to write the Bible. So what's the foundation of the church? The Bible. And who's

00:43:37 the central message of the Bible? Christ Jesus. He's the capstone, the cornerstone. So the foundation

00:43:42 of the church, right, the church is the pillar and buttress of the truth because it's planted

00:43:45 on the foundation of truth, infallible truth. And then the two roles, so that's apostles and

00:43:51 prophets so they're done because the foundation is not laid and relayed and relayed see first

00:43:57 corinthians chapter 3 paul says i as an expert builder laid a foundation and it does not need

00:44:02 to be laid again so the foundation has already been laid sufficiently fully and properly and

00:44:09 that's the apostles and the prophets and they still speak to this day as the word of god is

00:44:14 properly exegeted and applied okay so that work is done think of building a house you don't always

00:44:20 have the same guy from start to finish now you could but but with division of labor labor in

00:44:28 many cases you have teams of different guys so there's foundation layers and then they finish

00:44:34 and you don't see them anymore they go home and the guy who did the foundation is probably not

00:44:39 the guy who's going to be the plumber who's going to come in and put all the the the pipes you know

00:44:44 and then the electrician who's going to come and do all the wiring these are different guys and

00:44:48 you got framers, you got roofers, you got all these different things, right? So there's different

00:44:52 teams. Likewise, you got two primary teams when it comes to leaders in the church. And all these

00:44:58 leaders, they don't do the work of ministry. Remember the first point that I'm making, they

00:45:02 equip the saints, you, to do that ministry. And what is the work of ministry? That the body builds

00:45:08 up the body. The body builds the body. The body of Christ grows because the body of Christ is

00:45:13 growing the body of Christ. And the body of Christ is doing this successfully because they're

00:45:18 properly equipped. By who? By two waves, two teams of leaders. One team that already came and gave us

00:45:24 this, apostles and prophets. And then another team that uses this. This is the only authority that

00:45:31 the second team has, by the way. The second team, evangelists and pastors, use this. And insofar as

00:45:37 by the grace of God we use this properly, then that evangelist and pastor are successful in their

00:45:43 work to equip the saints for the work of ministry. So we had apostles and prophets, and we still have

00:45:48 them in a sense in the Word of God. And then we have evangelists and pastors working on the

00:45:53 foundation of the apostles and prophets, framing the house, coming and doing the wiring and the

00:45:59 plumbing and the roofing. And when it's all done, what will the end goal be? And this is the final

00:46:05 point of the sermon today. What will the end goal be? If you have your notes, turn it over to the

00:46:10 back. What is the end goal of the body's growth? This is focusing now on verse 13 and 14 of our

00:46:15 text verse 13 says that our goal is to build up the body until we all attain the unity of love

00:46:22 fluffy feelings is the goal no until we attain the unity of the faith and the knowledge not subjective

00:46:32 but the objective knowledge of the son of god this means that our aim is not only to have

00:46:40 unity of care and love, but also, it's not one against the other, but unity of care and love

00:46:47 and unity of faith and knowledge. Now, zoom in on these two sentences. Very important right here.

00:46:55 Unity of knowledge is not a politically correct concept, especially when it comes to claims about

00:47:01 knowing anything objectively or definitively about the Son of God, about Jesus. When someone today

00:47:08 He says, this is true about Jesus definitively.

00:47:13 And if you disagree, you're wrong.

00:47:16 That's not a popular thing today, right?

00:47:19 This is who Jesus is, period, end of discussion.

00:47:22 If you disagree with me, nanny, nanny, boo-boo, you're wrong.

00:47:25 Right now, you can do it with a bad attitude.

00:47:27 But to do it at all, even if you do it with the most humility and grace you could possibly muster,

00:47:33 you will still probably end up on the ADL's list, right?

00:47:36 you will still be hated hated by many why because one thing that people despise today is any claim

00:47:44 towards objective truth and you know how long people have hated that in one sense because of

00:47:51 total depravity because because the heart of man is wicked above all else because in our fallen

00:47:57 state apart from the saving grace that comes through christ alone through faith alone in him

00:48:02 alone, because man is bent towards wickedness from the womb, from his youth, there's a sense

00:48:09 in which all of humanity and all of human history has always hated truth. But I would argue

00:48:15 that particularly Western people, and particularly in the last 80 years, uniquely hates truth. 0.72

00:48:26 Uniquely. Particularly one kind of truth, which is what you might call true truth. It's really the

00:48:31 only kind of truth, but definitive, objective, universal truth. And do you know why? This is,

00:48:41 I'll admit, here's the disclaimer, this is overly generalized. But this is a big reason. It's not

00:48:46 exhaustive, but this is a big reason why. Because the last guy who made really strong dogmatic

00:48:52 claims was Hitler. That's a big part of it. And that's why the post-war sentiment, what I mean 0.98

00:49:00 by that is everything that's been believed by westerners over the last 80 years it doesn't mean

00:49:06 that it's always wrong but it should be read with discernment and suspicion because so much of what

00:49:11 america and europe has tried to do over the last century particularly the last 80 years is is set

00:49:18 up a hedge of protection a guard against fascism what they would deem as being authoritarianism

00:49:26 totalitarian uh a a strong charismatic dogmatic figure who would say this is true you don't we

00:49:34 don't like that guy that's a bad guy if you're wondering who's the bad guy that's that's the

00:49:37 bad guy you don't want to be that guy and because of that because of that what we've thought is

00:49:43 well instead of having strong patriarchal god-fearing but universal truth believing

00:49:50 absolute truth believing men the easier solution is just to have no men right you can have men in

00:49:57 a literal physical sense but in the proverbial sense they'll they'll all be effeminate they'll

00:50:03 all be weak they'll be men as lewis talked about men without chest that's what we have today we

00:50:10 have men without chest we have men that have been castrated and yet we tell them to be fruitful

00:50:17 We bid the geldings fruitful, is what Lewis says.

00:50:20 So we have men that are not really men.

00:50:23 And why?

00:50:24 Well, a big part of it is fear.

00:50:26 The reason why we don't have men today

00:50:28 is because we're afraid that if you have a man,

00:50:30 a real man, he'll be an oppressor.

00:50:34 He'll be the bad guy.

00:50:35 He'll be the next bad guy. 0.98

00:50:36 He'll be evil.

00:50:38 If you have power, it'll be abused.

00:50:40 And evangelicalism picked up on this hook, line, and sinker

00:50:44 and just gave it some biblically colored wrapping paper.

00:50:48 And so what we said is, well, a theology of suffering,

00:50:50 a theology of the cross, right?

00:50:52 How did Jesus conquer?

00:50:54 Well, he laid down his life.

00:50:55 That's true.

00:50:56 He laid down his life for a full 72 hours.

00:51:00 That's it.

00:51:02 Then he was done laying down his life.

00:51:04 And he took it up again.

00:51:05 And he didn't just take it up again,

00:51:07 but he took up a resurrected, glorified life.

00:51:10 And then he didn't just stop there.

00:51:11 He ascended in glory and majesty and power to the right hand of God the Father Almighty.

00:51:17 And He promises to come back with an iron scepter and to separate the wheat from the chaff

00:51:22 and to judge both the quick and the dead.

00:51:24 He is not merely Messiah, meek and mild, but He is conquering King of kings and Lord of lords.

00:51:32 We follow Him in baptism in His death, but only so that we might follow Him in His resurrection life.

00:51:40 those who suffer with him might also reign with him we have been called priests and kings to reign

00:51:48 with the king of kings we have been given authority and splendor and majesty to rule not only suffer

00:51:56 that's only part of the story it's an integral part of the story you can't skip that part of

00:52:01 the story or you miss the heart of everything but it's only a part we suffer because we will reign

00:52:07 we die that we might live and God decides you don't decide you don't get to be a kamikaze

00:52:16 evangelical pilot you don't get to determine what role you'll play God in his sovereignty

00:52:22 has determined for 2 000 years of church history that some might be martyrs and that they would

00:52:27 reign with Christ only in the life to come but in this life here and now they only suffered

00:52:32 but that's not all of christian history is it it's not you have polycarp but you also have

00:52:40 constantine and this is why all the young guys are getting real excited about the you know

00:52:46 charlemagne and you know king richard the lion heart and all the all these guys are for ferdinand

00:52:51 i didn't even know i thought ferdinand was a movie about a bull you know turns out ferdinand

00:52:56 well you know was a spanish king and he was awesome and he loved jesus and he was a sinner

00:53:01 like you and me and he made some mistakes but he did awesome things and so all that being said

00:53:07 that is part of christianity but that's not the part that you've been taught you know what you've

00:53:12 been taught from birth you've been taught crusades were bad you've been taught any use of power is

00:53:19 bad you've been taught that power is that it's not merely that power can be used for evil nefarious

00:53:25 purposes you've been taught that power in and of itself is inherently evil right so so then what

00:53:32 are conservatives right so politically political application here what are conservatives whether

00:53:37 they be christian or not what do they always say well democrats are the real races yeah okay

00:53:43 duh duh democrats were they were they were literally the enslavers of course they were

00:53:49 the real races we know that we've known democrats were the real races for approximately let's see

00:53:54 uh 200 years surely we can move on from that rhetoric that's not going to win an election

00:53:59 or democrats or or if we if we take down the satanist statue in the capitol building in ohio

00:54:06 then they might take down our nativity scene no it's not equal principle pluralism diversity

00:54:13 is our strength classical liberalism is a joke it was always a joke it only appeared in the optic

00:54:21 externally successful for a short in the span of human history a very brief a breath short

00:54:28 span of time because the residue of christendom for 1500 years was so formidable and so strong

00:54:36 that it was like a gust of wind that caused that little dinky sailboat of classical liberalism to

00:54:41 look like it had a motor it never did never so the idea of well the satanist statue that we'll let

00:54:48 that exists. We'll tolerate it. It doesn't mean we like it, but we'll tolerate it so that we can

00:54:51 have our Christian, you know, Christmas parade. No, or here's another option. Let me, let me throw

00:54:55 this out. Just, you know, humbly submit it for your careful consideration. What if, what if like

00:55:00 Michael Cassidy, you go into the Capitol building and you take this, the Satanist statue, you behead 0.61

00:55:05 it, you throw it on the ground, and then you still do the Christmas parade. And you say, you know

00:55:09 why? You know why? Because Jesus is king. And there's political ramifications to the kingship

00:55:16 of Jesus. And not all cultures are equal. Because culture, coming from the Latin word cultus, 0.93

00:55:23 simply means worship. And not all gods are equal. There is a God above all other demonic gods. A

00:55:30 king above all earthly kings. A lord above all earthly lords. And blessed is the nation that has

00:55:35 Yahweh as its God. And so we will serve him and him alone. And there are not equal freedoms and

00:55:42 rights for blasphemy. Blasphemy laws were on the books in this great nation once upon a time,

00:55:47 and by God's grace, I'd love to see them make a comeback. And I think they will. One day. May not 1.00

00:55:54 be in my lifetime, but one day it will. And you know why? Because truth is not relative. It is

00:55:59 not subjective. It is not internal. It is not personal. There are certain truths, true truths,

00:56:05 real truth, that would be true, as Wilson has said, whether I was ever born or not. Whether I

00:56:11 live or die the truth that which is truly truth is not contingent upon me or you it would be true

00:56:19 whether you were ever born or not common core math two plus two will always be four it two plus

00:56:27 two is four in hell it's it's it's four in china it's four and in these united states it's four in

00:56:34 heaven it'll be four ten thousand eons from now and it was four before the foundations of the 0.59

00:56:39 world relate, because it's true. It's true. And true unity is not only unity of the fields.

00:56:49 I don't want to minimize that too much, because unity of love is a real thing, and it does matter.

00:56:52 But it's not merely unity of love, common care. It's unity of truth, unity of conviction,

00:56:59 unity of knowledge, unity of doctrine. Our strength is not being divided when it comes to our beliefs.

00:57:07 And that is one of the biggest lies that incepted itself,

00:57:10 I believe, right around the time after World War I and World War II 0.92

00:57:13 because men came back.

00:57:15 And God blessed them.

00:57:16 I don't want to disparage.

00:57:17 The greatest generation, God blessed them.

00:57:19 And I think greatest generation is an appropriate title.

00:57:21 But they came back, and they weren't post-millennial.

00:57:27 They had seen so much atrocity, so much suffering.

00:57:31 They were just, I can't believe hopeful things anymore.

00:57:36 I just, I can't.

00:57:38 I've seen a man ripped apart.

00:57:39 I've seen this.

00:57:40 I've seen, I just, I can't.

00:57:42 And they came back.

00:57:44 And even though we won,

00:57:47 there was this sense of nihilism undergirding the American people.

00:57:51 It's just, it's all eventually going to burn.

00:57:53 There's a timestamp now. 0.96

00:57:55 It's shifted from the Puritans, a city on a hill,

00:57:58 and it's only going to grow progressively

00:57:59 like a mustard seed into a tree gradually over time.

00:58:02 The leaven working its way through the whole batch of dough.

00:58:05 It went, no, this is our moment, and we're going to give our kids everything we got,

00:58:10 because eat, drink, and be married, for tomorrow we die. And then in comes the boomers. 0.98

00:58:18 And the boomers got a lot. And for the record, the boomers, because I don't want to disparage,

00:58:22 right? We honor our father. The boomers worked really hard. Here's the difference. Millennials

00:58:27 and Gen Z, some are lazy. A lot are lazy. A lot are lazy. However, some do work hard, 0.99

00:58:33 and they're frustrated. You know why? They're frustrated. It's wrong. I think, I think we give

00:58:38 into the sinful temptation. It is sin. It's wrong. We'll say the boomers didn't have to work. That's

00:58:42 a lie. The boomers worked hard. Here's the difference though, between a boomer and a 0.96

00:58:45 millennial. Um, the boomers worked hard and their work worked. The millennial works hard

00:58:52 and their work does not work. Now, some of them are just lazy and entitled and spoiled. That's

00:58:59 true. But some, they're like, why work? Why? My work, when I work, it doesn't work. The boomers,

00:59:09 they worked and they worked hard, but it paid. Work paid off. And now we're living in a time 1.00

00:59:16 where people are rightly, sons, have been exasperated by their fathers. Precisely what

00:59:22 the scripture says not to do. That has happened. And so all this being said, from that time,

00:59:26 think 1940s what incepted into western the western mind and then the church was was a

00:59:33 bulwark and counter-cultural nope the evangelicals do what evangelicals do they adopted it to try to

00:59:37 be attractive and reach the culture and and hook line and sinker immediately compromised so sadly

00:59:42 that's you know that's what evangelicals do so the the culture and the church sadly bought into

00:59:48 that lie and said you know what it's all going to burn dispensational pre-millennialism jesus is

00:59:53 going to come back next thursday there's no point building a city on a hill because it's all going

00:59:57 to end anyways and it's all suffering but i guess you know suffering is a biblical tenant right

01:00:02 suffering of the cross doctrine of the cross and you know the big thing that we want to avoid

01:00:06 is strength and power because that's what ultimately lends towards corruption and evil

01:00:11 never again can we ever have a hitler type and so how do you get rid of a hitler type you get

01:00:16 rid of absolute truth transcendent truth dogmatic claims uh you get rid of patriarchy you get rid

01:00:21 of nationalism, national pride, right? That's a bad thing. So you do globalism instead of

01:00:25 nationalism. You do feminism instead of patriarchy. You do critical race theory instead of tradition. 0.99

01:00:32 You do revisionist history. You do inclusive and subjective truth instead of exterior, objective,

01:00:39 external truth. And that's where we've been for 80 years. And by God's grace, I think a lot of

01:00:46 people are sick of it. And so I think what's going to happen, here's a little, you know, I said

01:00:51 prophecy is done, but here's a little prophecy. No, it's not a prophecy. Here's a prediction

01:00:56 that is fallible and could be wrong. Here's a prediction. I think that what's going to happen,

01:00:59 I think R.R. Reno nailed it, right? So those are your two books. If you need to read any two books,

01:01:04 you know, by the end of the year, you got, you know, like a day, you know, but you want to catch

01:01:08 up on what was cool in 2023, there's really, it's only two books. It's Return of the Strong Gods

01:01:13 and Defenders of the West.

01:01:14 You read those two, you get it.

01:01:15 You're part of the cool kids.

01:01:17 So, you know, read those two books.

01:01:19 But here's the idea.

01:01:20 R.R. Reno, Return of the Strong Gods.

01:01:22 The strong gods, he doesn't mean like actual deities,

01:01:24 like Christ.

01:01:25 The strong gods that he's speaking of

01:01:27 is tradition, family, patriotism, nationalism,

01:01:32 patriarchalism.

01:01:34 These are the strong gods.

01:01:35 Objective, transcendent truth

01:01:37 rather than subjective, internal.

01:01:38 These are the strong gods.

01:01:39 And his whole premise, and I think he's right.

01:01:41 I can't, you know, I can't tell you the timing, but I think he's right in the concept. He's saying

01:01:45 these are inevitably coming back because here's the deal. You cannot escape nature. The industrial

01:01:51 revolution and technological advances have given us a sense that we can defy nature, but even that

01:01:56 will only happen for a time. Eventually, nature, as one great prophet, aka Jurassic Park, once said,

01:02:04 right, nature, life finds a way, right? That's literally every horror movie. Every single horror

01:02:09 movie is guys thinking they can defy nature and then nature eats them right that is you know i

01:02:15 just you know spoiler that every single suspense movie i've ruined because that's what it's all

01:02:19 about and that there's a reason why that cliche exists because there is some truth to it and so

01:02:23 i think that you know nature is eventually going to overcome and there's going to be a forced

01:02:29 inevitable return to the strong gods uh globalism will uh ultimately uh fall to nationalism a return

01:02:38 of nationalism. I believe that. Because globalism doesn't work. It's not sustainable. So even for

01:02:43 the atheist, if he wants to survive, eventually he'll find out that two and two makes four and

01:02:49 not five. And he's going to return to these things. And we will find feminism does not work. 0.53

01:02:53 Critical race theory does not work. A radical subjectivism does not work. This doesn't work.

01:02:59 And we will return, I believe, as a people, as a culture, even the West. Now we might be defeated

01:03:04 first. I hope we're not. So we, you know, I don't know. We might all be speaking Mandarin at this

01:03:09 point. I hope not. But we will return, whether we're the United States or whether we're 1.00

01:03:14 something else at that point. We'll see what God in his province determines in history.

01:03:18 But we will, as a people, the world will return to the strong gods. So here's the question,

01:03:23 and I'll leave it with this. It's not whether but which. Remember that old adage? Not whether but

01:03:28 which. You're going to have nationalism. Not whether but which. It will return. So are you

01:03:34 going to have pagan nationalism or Christian nationalism? You're going to have patriarchy.

01:03:39 You will. Because nature cannot be inevitably defined. You're going to have patriarchy. So

01:03:46 it will be Christian patriarchy or will it be Andrew Tate? You're going to have objective

01:03:52 transcendent truth right is it going to be islam or christianity someone will win out

01:04:01 someone with the strong gods tradition family patriarchy nationalism patriots it will return

01:04:09 because human civilization cannot inevitably survive without these truths but then the question

01:04:15 is which version of these things will you have and so instead of doing the gandalf move standing

01:04:20 you know on a bridge in between the bell rock and the hobbit you know and and saying you shall not

01:04:25 pass here i am tim keller with a third way of a soft weak complementarianism to defend you against

01:04:34 the mean patriarchy but also keep my christian card and not be a feminist like no i'm not going

01:04:39 to do that instead what i'm going to do is i'm going to stick to the script and i'm going to go

01:04:43 right over here and say no the strong gods do win but they should all be christian christian

01:04:48 nationalism, Christian patriarchy, Christian this, Christian that, Christian that, because Christ

01:04:51 is the strongest of all gods. He is King of King and Lord of Lords. And that is not mere unity of

01:04:58 love and the fields, but a unity of common conviction and truth. And apart from that kind

01:05:04 of unity, a nation will fall, a church will fall, your family will fall. If you think diversity,

01:05:11 not color but thought cultists worship doctrine if diversity of doctrine is your strength

01:05:20 you will fall and even satan knew that a house divided against itself cannot stand 0.96

01:05:27 beelzebub doesn't cast out beelzebub satan isn't even dumb enough to do that only americans 0.93

01:05:33 and evangelical christians unless we repent let's pray father help us to be humble 0.98

01:05:40 arrogance always comes with ignorance. Help us, Lord, to be informed, not transformed, or I'm sorry,

01:05:48 not conformed by this world and its culture and its lives, but transformed by knowledge, the renewing

01:05:55 of our minds, being conformed more and more every day to your truth. And we pray, Lord, that this

01:06:02 conforming into the image of Christ, transforming into his image, growing in knowledge, growing in

01:06:08 truth, growing in doctrine, that it would also lend towards righteousness, that it would not just be

01:06:13 an ivory tower doctrinal endeavor, but it would be righteousness with legs, righteousness on the

01:06:20 ground, applied to every single realm of all of human society, that we would be a city on a hill.

01:06:27 No, not old covenant Israel, but in a sense, a city on a hill that the nations would see that

01:06:33 they would flock to christ not to these united states but to christ saying he is the arbiter

01:06:39 of all truth and those nations which fear the lord will be blessed we pray this for christ's sake

01:06:46 in his name amen

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The NXR Podcast - January 01, 2024

SERMON - True Unity Always Includes Division

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